


This Is The Start

by egglorru



Category: The Tarot Sequence - K.D. Edwards
Genre: M/M, Multi, PWP, Polyamory, Rune and Brand are not related, Tallasmen, cuddles with a heaping side of raunch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-09
Updated: 2020-03-09
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:21:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23073121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/egglorru/pseuds/egglorru
Summary: Brand and Addam circumvent Rune's concerns about loving two different men by committing themselves to a group relationship. When Rune wakes up, they get busy.
Relationships: Rune Saint John/Brandon Saint John/Addam Saint Nicholas
Comments: 19
Kudos: 52





	This Is The Start

**Author's Note:**

> Set after the events of book two: The Hanged Man.

When Rune wakes up on a Saturday, it's a slow and comfortable return to reality. He woke on his own, so it's late morning at the earliest. His dreams were peaceful, so he slept while being held. Gods, he wants that every day of his life.

And then comfort starts to get nudged out of the way by confusion. He's being held a _lot_ at the moment. He opens his eyes to find Brand in front of him, face disorientingly close, foreheads nearly pressed together. When he glances down he can see Brand is in his usual t-shirt and jogging shorts, sans running shoes. A bare foot presses against Rune's ankle and the attached leg is bent in between his own knees. One arm is slung loosely over Rune's waist, just above the hem of his boxers.

Rune smiles at the rare treat of Brand cuddling up this close for as long as it takes to recognize the wall color as the master bedroom in Addam's condo, as well as the long, firm body pressed against his back that almost always sleeps in the nude now that he and Addam are dating. There's another arm around Rune's waist from behind, resting warm and familiar against his stomach, and Rune can't parse a situation in which his Companion would comfortably nap in the same bed as Rune but also his naked boyfriend. So...this must be a good and very comfortable dream, then.

Brand seems to sense the bittersweet happiness that thought brushes through him. Rune watches a wrinkle pinch between Brand's eyes before they open and feels the vague emotions that flicker through those blue, blue eyes – fondness, confusion, faint shock, realization, fondness again, and trepidation.

“Hey,” Brand murmurs, with a bit of hesitance. “Is this okay?”

The sound, however quiet, has Addam stirring against Rune’s back as he wakes too.

“Yeah,” Rune draws the word out, “but…”

Addam kisses his nape gently. “Brand and I talked a bit earlier this morning, Hero. He and I are in agreement, with your consent, for the three of us to date.”

“If it’s what you want,” Brand adds on quickly. “I told him I wasn’t sure you—”

Rune twists his neck to look back at Addam, mortification rising up his throat to choke him. He can't believe Addam went behind his back to tell Brand that Brand was the 'love of Rune's life', or whatever. If Brand was going to pull some self-sacrificing shit and give in to whatever he thought Rune needed, then Rune would have to be the one to shut it down. “Addam, no. He doesn’t – I told you he doesn’t feel—”

“ _Talk_ to him, Rune,” Addam interrupts. “You said you and Brand have never talked about that kiss? Talk to him.”

“He pushed me away!” Rune hisses angrily, feeling heat in his cheeks. “I told you, he rejected me, and it’s done, and we—”

“You were drunk!” Brand inserts incredulously. Rune freezes and turns his head back, cautious. “You’d just finished saying how much fun kissing Geoff was and I said I didn’t see the appeal - seriously, Rune, your taste in men has _vastly_ improved over time," he flicks his eyes over Rune's shoulder in acknowledgement, "but you thought I meant I didn’t see the appeal of _kissing_ , and so you kissed me. And I didn’t want that to be _why_ you kissed me. So I pushed you in the pool to sober you up, and you never brought it up again.”

Rune gawks at him for a solid five seconds. “ _You_ never brought it up again either! And anyway, it was a lie. Geoff wasn't really a good kisser. I didn't kiss you _because_ I was drunk, it just sounded like a good excuse so I could try kissing you. I never got up the nerve before the liquid courage." By the time he's finished, he's speaking haltingly to the mattress between them.

“Well…shit, then.” Brand lets out a breath. "And do you still want to?"

Rune is uncomfortably aware of how relaxed Addam is at his back. It feels so strange for it to be this _easy_. "Never stopped," he admits quietly. 

"Well shit," Brand repeats, this time with a rueful laugh. “We’ve wasted a couple of fucking decades.” He dips his head forward and meets Rune’s lips in a warm, slow second kiss, and the relief that sweeps both ways across the bond startles them into a laugh.

“Yeah?” Rune checks with a grin.

“Yeah.” Brand gives him a rare smile back.

“But…you two? Did I hear that right?”

Addam raises up onto his elbow. "Well, I am rather fond of Brandon as a friend, and I think I speak for us both when I say we respect each other, and so we decided that we'd rather learn to love each other too than to figure out the logistics of being your harem, Rune. That would require scheduling, and I prefer our romance to be a little more spontaneous and organic."

Rune opens his mouth to indignantly protest the concept of his having a _harem_ when Addam leans over and Brand shifts to meet him. Rune’s mouth is still open, but words vacate his mind as Brand licks into Addam’s mouth and the kiss turns rather fierce. It’s an unexpectedly sexy sight that he's never even fantasized about before, and from where he's sandwiched in between these two very hot men making out, his cock starts to push at Brand’s thigh as he watches.

Brand, who most certainly can feel the shock of lust shivering between Rune's brain and groin, and who also most probably heard Rune think distinctly that he wouldn't mind Brand actually cancelling Cinemax if he got to watch this a lot instead, drops his hand to just above Rune’s ass and pulls him in an inch. He breaks the kiss long enough to growl “Grind”, and then his arm abandons Rune's waist to fist Addam’s hair as he goes back to his mouth.

Rune bites his lip against a sound and rubs experimentally against Brand’s muscled thigh. His cock drags against the thin cotton of his boxers, and the uncooperative shift of the cloth is not the most enjoyable. He hesitates a moment before pulling his hardening length through the fly of his boxers to let skin meet skin. There’s a surprised inhale above his head, and then Brand groans and presses his thigh tighter between Rune’s legs, and that’s all the encouragement he needs. He starts to rock his hips into Brand's thigh, what little rhythm he can manage with Addam right behind him, without knocking back too much into Addam’s…oh Addam has definitely come alive too.

Addam slides a careful hand around his waist to press flat against his stomach, and the kissing sounds above Rune stop again. “Okay, Hero?” Addam asks, pressing his bare hips slowly up against Rune’s clothed ass.

“Yes,” Rune manages after a dry swallow. Addam doesn’t move. “Yes,” he repeats, a little louder. “I’m thirsty, not worried. You two are making me thirsty.” Silent laughter shakes against Rune’s back, and then Addam’s hand slides down until half his pinky tucks under Rune's waistband. Rune thinks about it, and he knows Addam is giving him time to think about it. And he decides that, actually, he feels very safe between these two specific, warm bodies. “Yes,” he says a third time, and Brand shifts his leg from between Rune’s long enough for Addam to divest him of his underwear.

When Brand searches his face and asks if it’s okay for him to do the same, Rune nods, so Brand shucks off his running shorts. Rune pokes his hand up underneath Brand's t-shirt to squeeze one of a half dozen exceptional abs, and Brand rolls his eyes but the shirt quickly joins the other clothes on the floor. Rune's other hand just as quickly finds its way to one of Brand's pecs, and he doesn't even pay attention to the second eye roll because he's too busy with the thought that if he wasn't amped up on adrenaline at this whole situation, he'd happily shove his face in between Brand's pecs and just go to sleep forever. A nap and suffocation via chiseled man muscles. Ideal death.

"My eyes are up here," Brand says mockingly and, when Rune doesn't look up fast enough, sticks a finger under his chin and tilts his head up forcibly to treat him to a condescending eyebrow and one final epic eye roll. "You are fucking shameless," he smirks.

But he doesn't remove Rune's hands from his chest, and Rune smirks back.

Then Brand’s knee re-inserts between Rune’s thighs, and he feels the back of Addam’s fingers against his ass cheek as Addam adjusts his erection to line up and rub against Rune’s cleft, and then it’s hard to think. Addam is basically grinding their hips for him and Brand’s thigh is so solid and warm, and Addam’s fingertips on his cheek guide his head up and back for a hot kiss that does nothing to relieve his parched throat, and Brand’s lips and morning stubble are on his neck, and Rune doesn’t so much feel out of control as he feels safe from the world even as he’s shaking apart, coming hard in the middle of all of this skin and heat and friction.

Brand and Addam both slow, moving with him but not for him, letting him milk his own pleasure. Addam gives Brand a chance at Rune’s mouth, another slow, explorative kiss, as Addam shifts down and brings the attention of his lips to Rune’s shoulder blades instead. It’s soft, and all of their breathing is starting to calm in the quiet room, and somehow that is very not okay, because he’s the only one that came.

He breaks away from Brand’s lips to tuck a kiss up under his jaw instead, and straightens his body against Brand’s so that he feels the hard line of a frankly huge erection poke against his lower ribs. Damnit, someone who's already so endowed when flaccid has no right to also be a grower and not a shower. “What about you guys? What should I—”

Brand’s hand cups the back of his head and presses, smushing his mouth against Brand’s throat. He sticks out his tongue in protest, but from the way Brand shudders, his Companion did not take it as a gross punishment. So he opens his mouth and sinks his teeth in. That also definitely didn’t work, and wow, feeling Brand's dick twitch and flex against his stomach is really distracting him from his attempts at petty revenge.

“ _You_ are going to lay on this side of the bed and fucking watch. _We_ are going to keep going,” Brand says, and Rune smiles where he feels the words vibrate against his lips. It’s a little bit of a relief, to be honest. He doesn’t want to reach a point where this feels overwhelming.

Brand lets go of his neck and he pulls back to speak. “I’m very happy to watch, believe you me, but I guess I meant…you’re both kind of alpha males? How is that going to work?”

Addam and Brand actually smirk at each other.

“I’m _always_ fucking down for sparring,” Brand says.

“When you’re horizontal I believe it’s more accurately called ‘fighting for dominance’,” Addam adds, “but right now, we will do whatever you decide, Rune.”

Rune blinks at that.

“Tell us what to do,” Brand agrees, and Rune blinks again, with a bit of trepidation.

“You want me to. Um. Control this?”

Control _you_ , he means, and he feels Brand understand that, but Addam reassures him first.

“No, Rune. We want you to tell us what you want to see, and let us make a show of it for you. Trust me, we’ll enjoy it either way.”

Brand adds what Rune really needs to hear. “If there was something we actually didn’t want, we’d just fucking stop and ask you for something else.”

“Oh.” Rune considers this as Addam crawls over him to join Brand on the other side of the king mattress. His consideration sums up in favor of the proposition, and he smiles at Brand, but when he turns his attention to Addam, his mouth curls into something more devious. “Then I’m issuing a challenge.”

“Oh?” Addam echoes, amused and amenable.

“ _I_ know how good…” Rune flushes and fidgets. “Your mouth feels. I want to see how well you can take _that_.” Their eyes drop to Brand’s cock and then meet again, and Addam grins.

“I will freely admit it is the largest I’ve ever personally encountered. I shall ease into it. Brandon, this will probably be easiest if you sit against the headboard.”

Brand slides up and sits back against it, but when Addam moves to get between his legs, he plants a hand against Addam’s forehead. “Rule number fucking one of this new relationship: when you call me fucking _Brandon_ , we’re not boyfriends.”

“Brand,” Addam acquiesces, and Brand moves his hand to grip the base of his erection and tilt it at Addam’s face.

“Then come and get it.”

Addam smiles and lowers his head, and instead licks at Rune’s cum streaking Brand’s upper thigh and hip. Rune feels his face heat at the evidence of his basically humping Brand's leg to orgasm, but Brand makes a soft noise of pleasure. Rune can see the corner of Addam’s mouth curled into his half-smile even as he slides his tongue along the seam of Brand’s hip and leg. When his cheek encounters Brand’s cock, he dips his head and sucks at one of his balls.

“Fuck,” Brand hisses out, and when Addam hums in agreement with his mouth full, he repeats more fiercely, “ _fuck_!”

“That is the idea,” Addam laughs as he lets go, and he licks a thick line up the underside of Brand’s cock with the flat of his tongue before adding, “With a mouth like yours I should have known you’d be vocal in bed.”

Brand’s eyes narrow and he grabs Addam’s hair, fully intending to shut him up with a very generous mouthful, but Rune is enjoying the teasing too much to let his Companion assert control.

“I want to see if he can swallow you without help, Brand. Arms behind your back?”

Brand glares at Rune, because he can likely feel the mischief in Rune’s mind even if Rune succeeded in keeping it off his face, but then slides the backs of his hands flat against the small of his back without protest. “Show me what you got, Blondie.”

Addam laughs and then goes about his task on his own sweet time, sliding lower by degrees with each subsequent bob of his head and tugging back up with long, hot suction. Gods, Rune is finding it hard to breathe just watching. When Brand’s hips start to try and accompany the groans and ' _fuck_ 's, Addam presses down with his hands, keeping Brand where he wants him, and draws off his cock with an almost excruciatingly slow pull and an obscene popping sound. Brand pants down at him, wide-eyed and waiting. Addam grins, and his lips curl around vowels thickened by his Russian accent and checked laughter. “You don’t taste much like sweat. Did you even _try_ on your run?” 

“Fuck you!” Brand shouts as Rune joins Addam in laughter. “I fucking came in here to check on Rune before I _left_ for a run and you fucking seduced me into cuddles instead, the fuck you want from me? Do what Rune fucking told you and suck my damn dick!”

Addam is still laughing when he leans back over, and Rune watches with interest at the way the hot puffs of air make Brand’s cock twitch where it leans against his own abs. Addam gives the head a lick and a kiss in amused apology and takes a deep breath, and this time when he lowers his head, he takes Brand all the way into his throat.

Brand yells and strains against Addam’s hands, and Rune feels heat rising in both his cheeks and his groin. Addam swallows once, visibly, around Brand’s shaft, and then pulls back quickly with a wet, slightly hoarse cough. He flicks a triumphant gaze at Rune, who thinks somewhat distractedly that the flush in Addam’s cheeks makes his wet burgundy eyes all the more gorgeous. Those beautiful eyes lower to Rune’s growing erection and back up to his face, and Addam’s expression just about doubles in satisfaction. “Jerk off to us, Rune.”

Rune’s cheeks are so hot that the only way he knows his Aspect isn’t making an appearance is the lack of orange glow on the sheets, but he takes himself in hand as requested, gently because he’s still sensitive from his first orgasm, while Addam returns to the blowjob with gusto. Addam doesn’t try to go deep again, but sucks hard and fast on half the length while stroking a tight fist down the rest, until Brand’s litany of teeth-gritted ' _fuck_ 's peak into an unintelligible growl as he comes.

After Brand goes still and Addam sucks him clean, Addam glances over at Rune again. “Want to come taste him?”

 _How_ is my face not on fire, Rune wonders at himself as he awkwardly crawls over, takes a steadying breath, and leans down to lick quickly at the head of Brand’s flagging erection. Brand groans again and cups his cheek, and Addam laughs a little behind him.

“I meant, Hero, do you want to taste him in my mouth?”

"Oh." Rune is seriously going to combust, but he lifts his head and kisses Addam. The taste is obviously not pleasant, but knowing where it came from sets the rest of his blood on fire anyway.

When he pulls away, he takes a few breaths and then suggests without eye contact, “Um, fuck Brand’s mouth?” He peers up through his bangs to catch Brand and Addam’s wordless exchange of question and agreement, and that really does go a long way toward making Rune relax again. Brand willingly doing what he says? He could get used to that, even if it's only while they're in bed.

Rune slides back to his allotted side of the bed to watch, and Addam gets somewhat wobbily to his feet on the plush mattress, but he’s too tall, so Brand has to kneel up too. When Addam leans over a bit to hold onto the headboard behind Brand’s head for balance, Brand darts forward and takes his cock in his mouth, leaving Addam to swear and fumble the last few inches. He clutches the headboard hard and scowls downward with a hitched gasp when Brand singsongs a hum around his cock that clearly means “I’m waiting~”. His first thrust is maybe a little aggressive on purpose, but after Brand grunts and gags slightly, he backs down into a firm rhythm that is careful, but not gentle enough to annoy Brand.

It sounds somewhat obscene, slick and unrelenting enough that saliva starts to slide down Brand’s chin. Addam keeps his real hand locked around the headboard and slides his sigil hand into Brand's hair to cup the back of his head, and the contrast of dark black hair and shiny brass is maybe the most beautiful thing Rune has ever seen. He has to have made some sound, because Addam pauses and turns his head to look, and Brand’s eyes slide open and to the right to meet Rune’s.

“Come here, Rune. Get a good look,” Addam smiles at him, and Rune only hesitates until Brand recants the earlier request to stay on the far side of the bed by crooking a finger at him. He scoots over next to Brand as Addam starts up again, and his dry throat clicks a little as he swallows. There’s a light sheen of sweat on Brand’s chest, which is heaving slightly as he breathes through his nose. He looks good, sweaty for exactly the reason that Rune never let himself imagine during all those times Brand came upstairs and crawled into Rune's bed after a run. He looks good with cock in his mouth. He looks…

The hot hand on Rune’s chest makes him jump slightly, and Brand’s eyes are on him again. Two fingers slide down his chest in a question. He gives it a moment of thought, kneels up next to Brand, and then Brand’s hand taps his own out of the way and takes over stroking his cock. Rune doesn’t know how his Companion can multitask like that, because Rune can barely think straight right now and he isn’t even doing anything besides looking and feeling, and he feels sort of bad about it. He leans into Brand’s side and kisses at his neck where Brand had seemed to like it earlier, and sure enough, Brand groans low around Addam’s cock.

Rune hadn’t even been paying attention to the way Addam’s hips were speeding up, but he certainly notices when Addam shouts at the vibration around his cock and smacks a forearm against the wall to brace himself as he comes down Brand’s throat.

After he sucks his way off of Addam’s flagging length hard enough to make him hiss and buck a little, Brand doesn’t even ask, he just tugs Rune in by the neck for a messy kiss while stroking him faster. A heavy thud on the mattress is Addam falling to his knees, and when Rune pulls away to breathe and look, Addam is leaning against Brand’s other side, watching them.

And in the end, that’s the last bit he needs to push him over a second time. That Addam is watching, and is okay with it, more than okay with it; that the two guys he loves most in this world not only both want him back but also respect and want each other. _Now_ he feels overwhelmed, in a wholly good way. He muffles himself into Brand’s shoulder and trembles through his orgasm. Brand effortlessly takes his weight as he sags.

Addam meets Rune’s eyes. There’s just a hint of mischief tucked into the corner of his smile as he turns to Brand. “So, was this better time spent in my bedroom than bringing a magazine?” Addam teases. When Brand just shrugs with a noncommittal noise, Addam and Rune lock eyes again in a wordless agreement and together shove Brand forward so he falls face-first into the mattress. They’re facing the wrong way and have no pillows, but they still flop down on either side of him and wrap arms and legs around him to settle in for a nap.

Brand immediately starts to struggle. “Oh, no. You’re not going back to sleep!”

“What? Post-coital naps are a well-documented phenomenon, you ass. Lay down!” Rune insists, and it’s a good thing Addam has Brand in a bear hug from behind, because there’s no way Rune would manage on his own.

“No, you just upped your adrenaline and you’re going to put it to use instead of crashing. Late morning jog and then lunch!”

“I take it back, we’re not dating! I’m not going to be stuck with a man who doesn’t let me sleep.”

“You’re stuck with me regardless, I’m your Companion!”

“I’ll ship you back to Boston!”

Brand narrows his eyes and then rolls them. “You’re only saying that because you’d follow me, and you found out baristas typically get free coffee while on shift.”

Rune does not dignify that near-psychic bullseye with a response.

Addam smiles and lets go despite Rune’s immediate, sharp protest, and leans for his phone on the nightstand. Rune octopuses himself tighter around Brand and tries to be dead weight, but Brand snorts and starts to push himself up toward a sitting position anyway.

“I’m ordering lunch," Addam proposes. "We nap until it arrives, and then after food, we’ll take a constitutional around the building to aid digestion before going for a swim.”

Both Brand and Rune stop struggling to consider this compromise.

“My only bathing suit is at the Enclave,” Rune says.

Addam smiles in that suggestive way that crinkles the corners of his eyes with mischief. “I know. I’ll call security to turn off the cameras too.”

“Well hell,” Brand says, straining against Rune's weight to grab a pillow from the other end of the bed before collapsing them both back against the mattress with a _whumpf_. “I’ll sleep to that.”

\--

If Brand falls asleep thinking about the symmetry of a man pressed into each of his sides, two arms tucked under his pillow, two heads pillowed on his shoulders, and a pair of clasped hands resting comfortably over his heart, and if he thinks drowsily that this might weirdly be the happiest he's ever been, well, he'll probably never tell.

\--

If Rune jolts awake at the sound of the doorbell only to have Brand squeeze him tighter, and the sight of Addam casually borrowing Brand's running shorts off the floor to go collect their lunch gets him sort of horny, well, they'll be in the pool soon enough.

\--

And if Addam returns from unpacking the food to see Brand and Rune kissing sleepily in his bed, and he finds that the small smile on Brand's face already makes him a little happy, just like the smile on Rune's makes his heart go soft? Well. It's a good sign for the future.


End file.
